The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Caladium plant, botanically known as Caladium×hortulanum, commercially referred to as a strap-leaf Caladium and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Mt. Everest’.
The new Caladium originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in April, 2001, in Lake Placid, Fla. of the Caladium×hortulanum cultivar Grey Ghost, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with the Caladium×hortulanum cultivar White Wing, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The new Caladium was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a single plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Lake Placid, Fla. on Jun. 15, 2002.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar by tuber divisions in a controlled environment in Lake Placid, Fla. since Apr. 15, 2003 has shown that the unique features of this new Caladium are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations of asexual reproduction.